Cognitive and Neuropsychological Approaches to Mental Imagery

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XVII

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2. Key Issues in Imagery Research

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Basic Puzzles in Imagery Research

      • Allan Paivio

      Pages 3-16

   3. A Computational Theory of the Mental Imagery Medium

      • Steven Pinker

      Pages 17-32

3. Imaginal Coding and the Processing of Verbal Information

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 33-33

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   2. Imagery and the Representation of Visual Information

      1. Reading Mental Images

         • Jon Michael Slack

         Pages 37-46

      2. Mental Imagery and Perception: Modularity or Functional Equivalence?

         • Manuel De Vega

         Pages 47-56

      3. Imagery and Memory

         • Ornella Andreani

         Pages 57-65

   3. The Processing of Lexical Information

      1. Stroop and Priming Effects in Naming and Categorizing Tasks Using Words and Pictures

         • Juan Mayor, Javier Sainz, Javier Gonzalez-Marques

         Pages 69-78

      2. Alternative Coding of Concepts

         • F. Alfonso Medina

         Pages 79-87

      3. Images, Predicates, and Retrieval Cues

         • Gregory V. Jones

         Pages 89-98

      4. The Importance of Age of Word Acquisition for Imageability in Word Processing

         • Anita Van Loon-Vervoorn, Miep Ham-Van Van Der Koppen

         Pages 99-107

      5. Frequency, Imagery Value, and Types of Features in Natural Categories

         • Herminia Peraita, Pilar Ferrandiz

         Pages 109-118

   4. Sentence and Text Processing

      1. Imagery and Prose Processing

         • Michel Denis

         Pages 121-132

      2. Imagery and Integrative Processing

         • Werner Wippich

         Pages 133-142

      3. Metamemory-Memory Connections and Their Development Under Imaginal Encoding Conditions

         • Silvia Mecklenbräuker

         Pages 143-152

   5. Discussion of Part 2

      1. Imagery, Memory and Prose Processing

         • Alain Desrochers

         Pages 155-164

4. Imagery Processes in Adaptive Behavior

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-165

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   2. Imagery Processes and Working Memory

      1. Imagery and Working Memory

         • Alan D. Baddeley

         Pages 169-180

      2. Interference Effects in the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

         • Gerard Quinn

         Pages 181-189

The locus of concreteness effects in memory for verbal materials has been described here in terms of the processing of shared and distinctive information. This theoretical view is consistent with a variety of findings previously taken as support for dual coding, insofar as both verbal and perceptual information may be involved in comprehending high-imagery sentences and in learning lists of concrete words. But going beyond previous accounts of imagery, this view also can provide explanations for several findings that appear contradictory to the thesis that concrete and abstract materials differ in the form of their storage in long-term memory. Although this does not rule out a role for imagery in list learning or text comprehension, it is clear that the complex processes involved in comprehension and memory for language go beyond mechanisms supplied by a theory based on the availability of modality-specific mental representations. The task now is to determine the viability of the theory in other domains. Several domains of imagery research presented at EWIC provided fertile ground for evaluating my theoretical viewpoint. Although not all provide a basis for distinguishing representational theories of imagery from the imagery as process view, there are data in several areas that are more consistent with the latter than the former. In other cases, there are at least potential sources of evidence that would allow such a distinction.

• anxiety
• brain
• cognition
• emotion
• perception

• Centre d’Etudes de Psychologie Cognitive, Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay, France

  Michel Denis

• Fachrichtung Psychologie, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany

  Johannes Engelkamp

• Department of Human Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK

  John T. E. Richardson

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